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Topic Review (Newest First)

02-04-2013 03:23 AM

Simpsoid

Your tank looks great dastowers.

Could you tell me what the plant in the first picture of post #9 is? It's the plant in the bottom right corner with the very red colouring under the leaves. Thanks!

01-07-2013 02:08 PM

dastowers

Rapt..Thank very much for the info! Good to know-this plant has really exploded with the ferts so I figured it was a really heavy user. Planned on trimming the one directly as it has sent up quite a few floating leaves and don't want it to shade my foreground plants.

Not sure if anyone is following this but here is 24 hours later. The curled leaf has grown into the one in front of the largest red discus. Amazing.

Just wanted to comment on growing the red lotus.
As you may be aware this is a tropical water lily rather than a true lotus. These plants can grow very quickly and very large with the right conditions. This one plant could cover half the surface of the tank in a few weeks

These plants will take very high levels of fertilization. When I was growing water lillies all the time they would get 1-3 plant tabs depending on plant size around/in the root ball once a week and grow madly. I often used Jobes tomato spikes for this. I was growing outdoors in ponds and tubs and indoors in a 4'x8' pond. For good blooming once the plant is mature a high P level fertilizer (say 8-24-8 and long wavelength (orange-red light ) will encourage good blooming. Plants don't respond terribly well to lots of blue light in terms of growth.

01-06-2013 10:43 PM

dastowers

Not sure if anyone is following this but here is 24 hours later. The curled leaf has grown into the one in front of the largest red discus. Amazing.

Veryzer. Glad you think this is helpful :-) We are currently working on the under-water measurements, but the air measurements allow us to predict average PPFD (PAR) measurements for the specific tank size. Beam angles will narrow in the water, but the total amount of the light in the tank will not be impacted beyond the Fresnel reflections off the top of the water.

Nick,
it's great to see someone putting in the effort to give some easy to understand data.

a couple of comments ( I hope they're a help and not a PITA)

while reflection is a major loss of light energy there are a few more factors that impact light through water. there's some quite handy information (graphs, tables, formulas, the lot) out there from oceanology studies and even industry probe/sensor setups (eg ultrasonics - sound is just a different size wavelengths and same laws apply)

Reflection & Refraction - lower angle of incence means more light will pass into the water.
using fresnel and snell you can determine how much energy has been reflected & how much has passed through & at what angle.
unfortunately these laws only apply for plane waves with a constant frequency.

Absorbtion - light becomes heat or is used in photosynthesis. this is what gives water colour. water appears blue as the blue photos travel futherest before being absorbed. after 1m 60% of all the light energy has been absorbed (as red photons only travel 1m all red has been removed after 1m)
absorption will decrease as temperature increases. salinity is also a fat or.

Commercial-grade, IP66 Waterproof LED light fixture assembled with a custom spectrum developed specifically to highlight all of the colors a freshwater show tank. By using a mix of the world's most efficient LEDs, these fixtures deliver incredible PAR levels (micromoles/m2/s) into your tank. Hence, this spectrum is extremely capable of growing the most demanding freshwater plants. The slim fixture design (1" tall / 2" wide) will improve the appearance of any aquarium. Available in 4 fixture lengths and 5 beam angles to work with all aquariums. For those seeking less pink in the light spectrum, this is a great alternative to the Freshwater Planted Spectrum. See the product comparison video link under the image thumbnails (lower left).

Very nice colors showing. What is the CRI of this lighting ? What leds did you use ?

01-05-2013 03:15 PM

dastowers

01-05-2013 03:12 PM

dastowers

Here they are (low quality iPhone 4s pics): Installation day 12/11/12 ***Note I was only using EXCEL and Flourish during the time span of these photos.*** So I can safely say if you want only a low-tech tank and lush growth- these lights work very well for that too! Actually I harvested the plants from this tank TWICE during the three weeks and lightly planted a 75 gallon bowfront and heavily planted 42 gallon bowfront (which has these lights also). The Amazon Sword mother plant (left corner) has been very generous also- lots of babies. They were out of control- in a good way. LOL!

Yesterday -I installed the Ultimate CO2 system from GLA and started EI ferts. Will start a journal soon so I can see the progress.

Lotus 3 weeks ago when lights installed:

Picture taken today 3 weeks later. Notice the growth on the Lotus especially:

In the other thread didn't you promise us some pics ? If you didn't I sure would like too see some please.

01-03-2013 06:37 PM

dastowers

Nick, I love my three lights. The plants are growing like weeds!

01-03-2013 06:32 PM

Build My LED

Veryzer. Glad you think this is helpful :-) We are currently working on the under-water measurements, but the air measurements allow us to predict average PPFD (PAR) measurements for the specific tank size. Beam angles will narrow in the water, but the total amount of the light in the tank will not be impacted beyond the Fresnel reflections off the top of the water.

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